White Knight 2 - aka "VMS Eve" leaving Phoenix

I got up and out of the house at an ungodly early hour this morning to get to the airport on the otherside of the Valley where White Knight 2 (aka VMS (Virgin Mother Ship) "Eve") had spent the night after its unscheduled landing on Friday.

I met up with some of the other local aviation photographers and waited to see when she was going to leave. Since the payload (Spaceship Two) wasn't being carried - WK2 was in the air in less than half of the runway.

The pictures below are from her departure almost right over us.

Ssshh - its a secret

Richard Branson's Rocket Launcher, originally uploaded by joe_stremph.

Richard Branson's newest toy (complements of Burt Rutan & Scaled Composites) - is hiding in a hanger outside of Phoenix.

It diverted there after a warning light came on - while they were on the way to overfly the groundbreaking on the Spaceport in NM.

It is now scheduled to leave sometime tomorrow morning and the crew would prefer no one take pictures of it on the ground. Waaah!

[UPDATE - 5:27pm MST - the unscheduled landing made the local paper's website, so I guess it isn't much of a secret anymore. The guy who took the picture that's not shown above any more (it was being used by another web site w/o giving Joe credit, so the picture got removed) - made the local news Friday night.]

How does.... a cockpit window catch fire?

VH-EBB Jetstar Airbus A330, originally uploaded by stef747.

The Airbus A330, operated by Jetstar, was flying from Japan to Australia when a window in the cockpit caught fire.

Until they can determine what caused Air France #447 to crash - I think any Airbus operator will err on the side of caution for any seemingly minor problem.

Underwater picture update - The article with my picture is on the website

Pop photo homepage - June 9, 2009, originally uploaded by rob-the-org.

I found that the article that my picture was used for got posted to the PopPhoto.com website yesterday.

My picture was used for the "How To... Dive In Using A Compact" tip.

But what I didn't expect - was that my picture would headline the whole article on the PopPhoto.com website.

Cool!

Can you see the 3rd plane in this picture?

Can you see the 3rd plane in this picture?, originally uploaded by rob-the-org.

As I was going through and reviewing this recent picture I shot at Sky Harbor (Phoenix) airport, I found a 3rd plane in the frame of this picture.

Click on the picture to get to the picture on Flickr - where you can view the full size version (it helps to find the 3rd plane).

Underwater picture

Cassidy - just below the surface, originally uploaded by rob-the-org.

I took this picture last summer in our backyard pool - with a simple disposable Fuji (film) underwater camera. Cassidy has been taking swimming lesson's since she was a toddler - and each session they try to take a underwater picture to sell to the parents. Emphasis on 'try' because it is an indoor pool and unless the light is just right - the pictures are usually pretty murky. So I was trying to take a half decent underwater picture to share with family and friends.

Skip ahead to this Spring. I post and share my pictures via Flickr. On Flickr there are groups for different interests. Several months ago I had come across the Popular Photography magazine group on Flickr and joined it. Every couple of months the staff from PopPhoto will post requests for specific types or themes for pictures that they need for upcoming issues.

In March - there was a request for an underwater picture taken with a compact camera (not with a high end SLR in a housing) and I submitted this picture. The staff at PopPhoto contacted me and asked me to sign a release for the picture.

I didn't find out that it was actually going to be published - until the June 2009 issue was published. My picture appears on page 55 as part of the tip on "How to... Dive in using a compact".

[The tips should be published on the PopPhoto web site at some point in the next couple of weeks. When it is - I will include the link to the article].

Air Force One comes to Phoenix

On Wednesday, the President came to Phoenix to give the Commencement address for ASU's graduation.

So for aviation photographers - that meant a chance to take pictures of Air Force One as it came into land. I had some vacation to use up - so I took the day off and went down early to find a good place to take pictures from. I ended up on an upper level of the airport parking garage - with a good view of the north side runway.

Below is the link to the highlights of this mini photo trip on my Flickr photostream.